BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The teen mother of a 15-month-old Tennessee girl who is the subject of an Amber Alert is now accused of filing a false police report.
Megan Boswell, who has said the toddler’s grandmother took the little girl to Mendota, Virginia, is being held at the Sullivan County jail on a false report charge, according to the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office. Her bond was set at $25,000.
The 18-year-old is accused of providing detectives and agents with a number of conflicting statements during the investigation, The Bristol Herald Courier reported Tuesday night. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation says there are so many unanswered questions, it decided to post a video addressing what they don't know.
Boswell told WJHL-TV on Monday that her mother took Evelyn Mae Boswell to a campground. Authorities later searched the area and didn't find the girl, the sheriff's office told the station late Monday.
The child's grandmother, Angela Boswell, and her boyfriend, William McCloud, were arrested last week in North Carolina on fugitive warrants unrelated to the toddler's disappearance. Before she was returned to Tennessee, Boswell told the judge she wanted to return home and resolve the situation with her granddaughter, news outlets reported.
Boswell was returned to the Sullivan County jail on Monday evening and arraigned on Tuesday on a theft charge, news outlets reported. The judge set her bond at $5,000 in the case, but Sullivan County Sheriff's Capt. Andy Seabolt said she will remain incarcerated because a bondsman revoked her bond in another, unrelated case.
The TBI said McCloud and Boswell are “believed to have information” regarding the whereabouts of the girl, who was reported missing Feb. 18.
The agency also said the girl might not have been since Dec. 26, but they're not sure about that date because the mother and grandmother have given conflicting accounts about her disappearance.
The Herald Courier reported that the Amber Alert was issued after the sheriff's office received a Tennessee Department of Children’s Services referral saying family members hadn't seen the baby in about two months. The baby's great-grandfather, David Jones, told the newspaper that he hadn't seen the baby since about a week before Thanksgiving.
